Forward Thinking

Latest news and innovations from Oxford Economics

Chinese consumer market to overtake America’s by 2034

“Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.” The cautionary words of Napoleon have echoed ever more powerfully as China’s economic and political power has burgeoned over recent decades.

And with the seismic impact of the world’s most populous nation set to resonate ever more strongly than ever in coming years, in few areas of life will those reverberations be felt more than in the rise of China’s consumers as a global force.

As winter turns to spring, around the world investors are anxiously watching the present spasm in global equities and bonds and asking themselves whether the bears of the financial markets are finally waking from a long hibernation.

We think not. To us, a correction of the sort seen in recent days was overdue and a jump in volatility along with this sort of adjustment in equity valuations was just a matter of time. The pretext and triggers were, and remain, less important – stretched valuations in equities often find their own triggers for such an upset.

Companies’ spirits boosted by buoyant world trade and US fiscal stimulus measures as fears over North Korea tensions and China slowdown retreat

Businesses are increasingly positive about prospects for the world economy, with optimism over the global outlook at its strongest for two years, according to Oxford Economics’ latest survey of global risk perceptions among clients and business contacts, including some of the world’s largest companies.

How our EPRE risk tool helps keep users on their guard in a volatile world

The upsets and surprises of the past 12 months show all too clearly how, in an ever more unpredictable world, risk can catch out the unwary. And, as we begin 2018, nowhere is this more apparent than in the realms of economic and political risk.

As one of the world’s foremost independent economic forecasters, Oxford Economics has collaborated in a joint venture with Control Risks, the global specialist in political and security risks, to create a unique tool for organisations to weigh-up the uncertainties lurking in every corner of a volatile globe.

We head into 2018 in a fairly optimistic mood. The current global economic upswing is more broadly based than any other since the global financial crisis, and – unusually, by recent standards – the new year approaches without any major crisis looming.

In our latest forecasts, we see world GDP growth accelerating from 2.9% this year to 3.2% in 2018. This would mark the best year for the world economy since the rebound from the global financial crisis began.

It is plausible that recent low volatility is the new and persistent norm, with economic surprises muted and downside risks in decline.

As a tempestuous year in world politics comes to an unnerving close, in economics the nervousness flows from an almost entirely and strangely opposite cause. 2017 ends as the year of the risk conundrum.

Even as the advent of the Trump Administration, the UK’s great Brexit gamble, and the rise of populism and separatist tendencies in parts of Europe have raised the global political stakes, in the global economy both macro and market volatility have recently plummeted. Conditions, in fact, appear more stable than during the period of the Nineties and early 2000s, which itself became known as the ‘Great Stability.

The UK launched its Industrial Strategy yesterday, seeking to tackle the UK’s pervasive slow productivity growth. Developing technical skills is one of the key recommendations, through increasing teaching of STEM subjects, enhanced Computer Science education and “T levels,” the establishment of a National Centre for Computing Education and an Institute for Coding. Coincidentally, last week BT and Accenture launched their study “Tech know-how: The new way to get ahead for the next generation.” Though they both seem on the same page in promoting tackling technology skills shortages, there are important differences in emphasis.

Lost amid Europe’s political drama and recurrent euro doomsday scenarios is the fact that the Eurozone economy has a business cycle that is alive and well.

Our analysis suggests there is plenty of room left in the current expansionary cycle, which could see the single currency area enjoy a golden decade of economic growth.

More than four years into the current upturn, most indicators signal the Eurozone economy is still somewhere around mid-cycle, suggesting that – absent an unexpected shock – we should see several more years of sustained expansion.

One reason is that the amount of economic slack in the Eurozone countries – the size of the “output gap” before an economy hits a ‘speed limit’ above which growth comes with inflation – may be larger than commonly accepted.

Economy would be 2% smaller than otherwise expected by end of 2020 - equivalent to a £16bn hit to GDP

With Theresa May’s UK Government struggling to make progress in ‘Brexit’ negotiations with the EU and strike a deal for Britain to leave the bloc, Oxford Economics analysed the potential impact of the talks collapsing with no agreement.

Businesses remain fearful over risks of major economic upsets that could trigger a global slowdown - despite the present upswing in world growth, according to our latest quarterly survey of global corporate risk perceptions. Business fears over tensions between the US and North Korean and over potential US policy errors emanating from the Trump Administration have persisted since the summer, even as world growth has strengthened.

The world economy is evidently in the midst of what many are calling a synchronised upswing in growth. A strong rebound in manufacturing, led by Europe, appears to be at the heart of the resurgence. And the pace of expansion has accelerated in recent months. This environment is fundamentally conducive to outperformance by assets leveraged to global growth.

Investors have now been uneasy for many months that in some key global equity markets, shares are becoming overvalued, with share prices relative to corporate earnings – P/E ratios ¬– stretched, especially in the United States.

But our analysis concludes that equity earnings cycles, especially in underperforming markets in Europe and emerging markets (EM), should continue to power ahead for some time.

Ten years on from the global financial crisis, and eyes are peeled for triggers for a new world economic upheaval. And chief among the prime suspects is debt, and especially household debt.

Last month, the International Monetary Fund highlighted the danger from big increases in both the level of household debt and the pace at which it is rising in many key economies. “Higher household debt is associated with a greater probability of a banking crisis, especially when debt is already high, and with greater risk of declines in bank equity prices,” the Fund warned in its influential Global Financial Stability Report.

Building on the IMF’s analysis, Oxford Economics has put the debt bogeyman under the spotlight.

We investigated just how great the risks really are, and just where they may lie, country by country, creating a global risk map to identify the debt danger zones to the world economy. This goes beyond the Fund’s study which while looking at 80 economies and across 25 years of data stopped short of naming the countries where the risks loom largest.

How closely linked is your disposable income to your overall wellness? Does sleep impact your quality of life? What about spending time outdoors or chatting with your neighbours? Our daily experiences and interactions impact our lives and wellness. But it’s not always so clear how to define and measure them.

In our latest research, we explore those questions and more, partnering with Sainsbury’s as we quantify, analyse, and track what it means to live well.

We asked more than 8,000 people to tell us how they’re living – from their relationships with partners, family and friends, to whether they own their own home, how secure they feel in their finances and jobs and much more. In the coming years, we will track how these factors change and impact our lives, creating the Sainsbury’s Living Well Index.

What will the highways of the world look like in five or 10 years’ time and what will this mean for the future of the automotive industry, not to mention the thousands of businesses in multiple industry sectors that supply them? For many, the hubbub in the media and among industry observers over electric vehicles drives an image in our imaginations of a world humming quietly to the sound of electric cars whizzing us happily to our destinations. It is a vision of more efficient journeys, clean air and a quieter environment.